First Day of Classes at Dordt

Today was the first day of classes at Dordt. I was really nervous about how it was going to go. I made sure I had everything all prepared and arrived early. I particularly wanted to have some time to get acquainted with the technology in the classrooms before I had to teach my class. I am teaching in a brand new building and all the classrooms are equipt with the latest technology to be examples of "model" classrooms. I certainly didn't want to look like a less-than-model teacher because I couldn't get the tech stuff to work.

This semester my Monday / Wednesday / Friday classes all meet in room 2260 and my Tuesday / Thursday class meets in 2248. Another prof was busy setting up for his 8:00 class in room 2260, but 2248 was open so I went in there to check things out. A friend from the department was able to help me figure out how everything worked and even showed me how to use a few things I didn't know we had. As I left, I did mention to my friend that I would actually be teaching in 2260 today and would have to remember to go to the right room. However, I also left feeling pretty confident that I could do this technology thing.

About 10 minutes before my class started, I headed over to the classroom. I set up my computer, got everything hooked up, and was walking around greeting students and generally trying to appear friendly and welcoming. It was all going great. The thought did cross my mind that there were more males than I had expected, but I didn't really think about it too much. Then a student came up to me and very nicely said, "This is an art history class and I'm pretty sure you're not our professor." Oops! Yep, I had just gone right back to 2248 even though I really did know that I was teaching in 2260. Oh well, it made for a funny story to tell at the start of class. Plus, the couple of students who arrived late to class because they got lost in the new building didn't feel so bad :-)